Assessment is a component of education with many potential complications. Understanding student performance is critical to effective education, both as a measurement compared to benchmarks and as a driver of instruction. Collaborative experiences have additional factors with which educators must contend. It is important for students to understand this component as part of the learning process. Diaz, Brown, and Salmons (2010) provide three methods of assessment: individual, instructor, and external (p. 6). Individual assessments are ones which are completed by the learner, including reflections on the process, explanation of equity, and what they learned. I like this method of evaluation, as it takes into account individual differences, including variations in ability and knowledge. I use this for one of my in-class, group projects. These self-reports combined with my assessment of the final product help me assess the students' individually. In addition to self assessment, Palloff and Pratt (2006) provide additional principles including allowing students to have input in the rubric, align assessment with the learning objective(s), and make rubrics clear. Additional prompts can be found here.
Participation in the collaborative work is important for three significant reasons (Centre for the Study of Higher Education, 2002): inherent benefit to learning, skills important in the work-world, and a potential reduction in workload. I don't agree with the reduction in workload noted by the authors; effectively assessing collaborative tasks while honoring individual participation and growth is not any less work for the instructor.
So what happens when a group member does not want to participate? Dunlap (2008) provides a nice list of guidelines for collaborative work, and several repeated concepts, like group contracts. I like that she includes the idea of "no jeopardy"; students have a way to receive a fair grade when a group member does not complete an assigned task. One method she includes is an exam with questions that could only be answered by those involved in the project. Unfortunately, none of these provide ways to get students on board with this model. For projects, I believe students should be given the opportunity to work alone, with the understanding that they are taking on more work and considerations will not be made for their choice to work alone. For assignments where participation is critical for all in the group, such as learning communities, it is important to reach out to reluctant participants; explaining the rationale behind the collaborative task is an important part of this process. Not only does this help garner buy-in by the student, it also reminds them that collaboration is an expectation of the course.
References:
Centre for the Study of Higher Education. (2002). Assessing group work. Retrieved from http://www.cshe.unimelb.edu.au/assessinglearning/03/group.html
Diaz, V., Brown, M., Salmons, J. (2010). Unit 4: Assessment of collaborative learning project outcomes. Educause Leaning Initiative. Retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI80084.pdf
Dunlap, J. (2008, August 27). Improving the odds of effective collaborative work in online courses [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://thoughtsonteaching-jdunlap.blogspot.com/2008/08/improving-odds-of-effective.html
Palloff, R.M. and Pratt, K. (2006). How do we know they know? Student assessment online. Retrieved from http://www.uwex.edu/disted/conference/Resource_library/proceedings/06_4231.pdf
After reading your blog, I concur with your points. You explained how collaborative learning can be an issue for higher education. But, the challenges that higher education are the same challenges that K-12 and charter schools encounter. Distance education in all of its forms are increasing in higher education. Therefore, K-12 and charter schools need to expose students to the various forms of distance education and reform their pedagogies.
ReplyDeleteMarvin, I don't agree with reduction in workload either! I like the reflective peer assessment questions in your prezi and appreciated your contextual hyperlinks.
ReplyDelete@Learning2 - I disagree that the challenges are the same. I think K-12 public education has a unique set of challenges which stem from the requirements of accepting everyone. Universities, charter schools (some), and private schools have the ability to limit who participates. By being able to limit participants to certain prerequisites, abilities, or technology accessibility some challenges can be eliminated or reduced. K-12 public education takes everyone, irregardless of background, ability, or potential. But I fully agree with you that K-12 education needs to prepare students for online education at the university/industry levels.
ReplyDeleteMarvin,
ReplyDeleteI used to agree that students should be given the opportunity to work alone, mostly do to my disdain for group work. But after working with students who could not work together if life depended on it, I realized social interaction is a learned behavior that we cannot overlook. We must teach how to collaborate even with those who prefer not to. My teachers did that with me and it has helped me become successful.